Mennonite Weekly Review

The U.S. war in Afghanistan pursues grand designs of nation-building and the defeat of terrorism. Toward these ends Americans spend hundreds of billions of dollars, deploy tens of thousands of troops and sacrifice thousands of lives.

But after nearly nine years of war, U.S. troop surges and airstrikes have not brought peace, or even stability, to Afghanistan. In fact, the real and effective work of peacemaking is being done by people who don’t carry guns or fire missiles.

One of those people was Glen Lapp, 40, of Lancaster, Pa., who served in Afghanistan with Mennonite Central Committee. Lapp was among 10 medical workers on an eye care team who were murdered Aug. 4 in the northeastern province of Badakhshan. He and his colleagues, who served with International Assistance Mission, an MCC partner, were ambushed by gunmen while returning from a mission to treat cataracts and other eye conditions.

Serving people in a remote and dangerous part of the world, Lapp’s group was doing the kind of work that holds real hope for peace in Afghanistan — improving people’s lives rather than destroying them.

If Americans sent more Glen Lapps to Afghanistan — a peace force of doctors, nurses and teachers — we would build a more effective presence against terrorism. As Nicholas D. Kristof wrote recently in the New York Times: “Education has a rather better record than military power in neutralizing foreign extremism… . Education is a better bet for peace than firing missiles (especially when one cruise missile costs about as much as building 11 schools).” The same could be said of Lapp’s work in medical care.

And so, as the Afghan war grinds on, the work of making peace continues too. The humanitarian group CARE operates 300 schools in Afghanistan. International Assistance Mission has worked in the country since 1966, currently in the areas of eye care, development, education and health care. All the lives these touch are potential allies in the struggle against terror and hate.

Lapp’s contribution to a peaceful future for Afghanistan was driven by three great passions, as described in his obituary: “He sought to help meet the needs of those less fortunate, especially in developing countries; he had an unquenchable thirst for adventure; and he was constantly on a quest for wisdom and knowledge.”

Perhaps most important of all, he fell in love with the people of Afghanistan. No grand design, just love.

Lapp’s courage and sacrifice remind us all of the risks that workers may take to answer God’s call to serve those in need. With painful new awareness we see the cost of bearing God’s peace and healing in the midst of war. We see the evil that darkens the hearts of those who kill innocents, and also the light that overcomes it.

We pray that the people of Afghanistan who can see more clearly thanks to Glen Lapp will remember him and multiply in their own lives the love he paid with his life to share.